Auckland Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes explained

The Lord Geddes
Birth Name:Auckland Campbell Geddes
Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
Honorific-Suffix:GCMG KCB PC
Monarch2:George V
Primeminister2:David Lloyd George
Bonar Law
Stanley Baldwin
Ramsay MacDonald
Ambassador From2:British
Country2:the United States
Predecessor2:The Viscount Grey of Fallodon
Successor2:Sir Esme Howard
Party:Conservative
Monarch1:George V
Order1:President of the Board of Trade
Predecessor1:Sir Albert Stanley
Primeminister1:David Lloyd George
Successor1:Robert Horne
Birth Date: 21 June 1879
Birth Place:London, England
Death Place:London, England
Spouse:Isabella Ross
Children:5; including Margaret, Princess of Hesse and by Rhine
Term Start1:26 May 1919
Term End1:19 March 1920
Term Start2:1920
Term End2:1924

Auckland Campbell Geddes, 1st Baron Geddes, (21 June 1879 – 8 June 1954) was a British academic, soldier, politician and diplomat. He was a member of David Lloyd George's coalition government during the First World War and also served as Ambassador to the United States.

Early life

Geddes was born in London as the son of Auckland Campbell-Geddes, a civil engineer, and his wife Christina Helen MacLeod Anderson.[1] He was the brother of Sir Eric Campbell-Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War and principal architect of the Geddes Axe, which led to the retrenchment of British public expenditure following the War. His sister was Dr. Mona Chalmers Watson, the first woman to graduate M.D. from the University of Edinburgh and the first Chief Controller of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.[2]

Career

Boer War

Geddes served in the Second Boer War in South Africa between 1901 and 1902 as a second lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry. On 2 June 1902 he was promoted a lieutenant in the 3rd (Militia) battalion of the regiment, and he returned home with other men of this battalion on the SS Doune Castle in September 1902, after the war had ended two months earlier.[3]

Academic career

Geddes was educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh. He then studied Medicine at Edinburgh University[4] graduating MB ChB in 1903. From 1906 to 1909, Geddes was an Assistant Professor of Anatomy at Edinburgh University. The university gave him his doctorate (MD) in 1908.[5]

In 1909 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; his proposers were William Turner, Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, David Waterston and George Chrystal.[6] From 1913 to 1914 he was a Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. From 1913 to 1914, he was a Professor of Anatomy at McGill University. His academic career was interrupted by the First World War during which he served as a Brigadier General in the War Office.[7]

First World War

During the First World War he served as a Major in the 17th Northumberland Fusiliers and was on the staff of the General Headquarters in France as a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel and Honorary Brigadier General.[8] Geddes was Director of Recruiting at the War Office from 1916 to 1917.

Political and diplomatic career

In 1917 he was elected Unionist Member of Parliament for Basingstoke, a seat he held until 1920. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1917 and served under David Lloyd George as Director of National Service from 1917 to 1918, as President of the Local Government Board from 1918 to 1919, as Minister of Reconstruction in 1919 and as President of the Board of Trade (with a seat in the cabinet) from 1919 to 1920.

Geddes was appointed Principal of McGill University in 1919 but never undertook his official duties. He resigned from the post in 1920 after being appointed British Ambassador to the United States, in which position he served until 1924.[9] As His Majesty's ambassador, Geddes investigated the treatment of British immigrants at Ellis Island, for which he wrote a report (1923).[10] He was also heavily involved in the negotiations that led up to the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which limited the size and number of the world's battleships. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (G.C.M.G.) in 1922.

From 1924 to 1947, he was the Chairman of the Rio Tinto Company and Rhokana Corporation.[11] He returned to public service during the Second World War when he served as Commissioner for Civil Defence for the South-East Region from 1939 to 1944 and for the North-West Region from 1941 to 1942. The latter year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Geddes, of Rolvenden in the County of Kent.

Personal life

On 8 September 1906, Geddes was married to Isabella Gamble Ross (1881–1962) at St. Mary's Church in Livingston, Staten Island. Isabella was a daughter of William Adolphus Ross (1843–1912) of Staten Island, New York,[12] one of the largest soft drink manufacturers in Ireland (W A Ross & Sons Ltd, with Ross's Royal Ginger Ale, the firm's principal product)[13] and who settled in New York. Together, Geddes and his wife had five children:

Lord Geddes died in January 1954, aged 74, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, Ross.[16] Lady Geddes died in January 1962.[17]

Arms

Escutcheon:Azure three geds naiant Or on a chief of the last as many boars' heads couped Sable armed Argent langued Gules.
Crest:A Scots pine tree growing out of a mound all Proper.
Supporters:On a compartment semé of sea-pinks two geds Proper.
Motto:Capta Majora [18]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 . dead . The Royal Society of Edinburgh . July 2006 . 25 June 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf . 24 January 2013 . 0-902-198-84-X.
  2. Book: Spiers . Edward M. . A Military History of Scotland . Edinburgh University Press . Edinburgh . 2011 . 23 . 9780748633357.
  3. The Army in South Africa - Troops returning Home . 5 September 1902 . 6 . 36865.
  4. 1244689 . In Memoriam – Lord Geddes . 88 . Pt 3 . Journal of Anatomy . 1954 . 426–428.
  5. Campbell Geddes . A. . 1908 . Acromegalic-giganticism: a hypothesis . Edinburgh Medical School Thesis and Dissertation Collection.
  6. Book: Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002. July 2006. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 0-902-198-84-X. 25 June 2016. 24 January 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf. dead.
  7. Book: Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 . dead . The Royal Society of Edinburgh . July 2006 . 25 June 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf . 24 January 2013 . 0-902-198-84-X.
  8. Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
  9. Book: Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002. July 2006. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 0-902-198-84-X. 25 June 2016. 24 January 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf. dead.
  10. News: Times . Special to The New York . GEDDES RESIGNS AS AMBASSADOR OWING TO ILLNESS; Washington Had Been Led to Believe That He Was Improving at Home. EXPECTED EARLY RETURN Sir Auckland Has Been Virtually an Invalid Since Being Gassed on the Western Front. HOWARD MAY GET POST British Envoy to Madrid Is Likely to Be Picked as Next American Envoy. GEDDES RESIGNS AS AMBASSADOR . 28 September 2021 . . 30 December 1923.
  11. https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1582 The Papers of Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes
  12. News: MARRIED . 28 September 2021 . . 9 September 1906.
  13. Web site: Soda, So Good: W A Ross Of Belfast . Let's Look Again. July 1, 2016 . July 3, 2024.
  14. News: MARGARET GEDDES ENGAGED TO MARRY; Daughter of Former British Envoy to U. S. to Be Bride of Prince Ludwig of Hesse . 28 September 2021 . . 17 July 1937.
  15. News: Pytt Geddes (obituary) . 16 January 2020 . The Telegraph . 21 March 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071204075831/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2006%2F03%2F21%2Fdb2101.xml . 4 December 2007 . dead.
  16. News: LORD GEDDES, 74, EX-ENVOY TO U.S.; Former Professor at McGill Served in Capital 1920–24 Led British Trade Board . . 9 January 1954 . 28 September 2021.
  17. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999.
  18. Book: Burke's Peerage . 1949.